Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer

The engrossing, often scandalous saga of one of the wealthiest, longest-lasting, and most colorful family dynasties in the history of American commerce—a cautionary tale about prosperity, profligacy, hubris, and the blessings and dark consequences of success. This engrossing, vivid narrative captures the Busch saga through five generations. At the same time, it weaves a broader story of American progress and decline over the past 150 years. It's a cautionary tale of prosperity, hubris, and loss.

I'm more of a wino than a beer drinker, but this is a really interesting story. It's extremely well written and well narrated. I would highly recommend this audio book to anyone interested in the history of American business. Informative and entertaining at the same time.

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now.

The story of Amazon and its founder (Bezos) has so many moving parts, that I walked away highly impressed with the author's ability to paint the picture clearly - and in an entertaining fashion. The author also does a very good job at presenting Bezos objectively - neither lionizing, nor "trashing" him, but instead presenting him as he is: brilliant, complex, and difficult.

The narration here is excellent as well. Very clear, very straightforward, very professional.

All in all, a very interesting and highly entertaining work. A job well done!

How I Slept My Way to the Middle: Secrets and Stories from Stage, Screen, and Interwebs

Kevin Pollak rose through the comedy club ranks at the feet of Don Rickles and Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson, and George Carlin. Named one of Comedy Central’s Top 100 Stand-Up Comedians of All Time, he’s a killer impressionist — Falk, Shatner, Walken, Nicholson — a versatile actor with one of the most respected filmographies around, and an Internet pioneer. He’s done it all, and now he’s ready to spill the beans.

Pollak is clearly a funny guy, but is also a very good story teller. Only occasionally does his shtick get a bit tiring, but most of the time his stories and anecdotes are a lot of fun. A light, enjoyable read told with pluck and verve.

The President of Vice: The Autobiography of Joe Biden

The Onion is proud to present The President of Vice: The Autobiography of Joe Biden. In this scandalous memoir, America's favorite politician discusses his early years, before he became ultimate wingman to the leader of the free world. For the first time ever “Diamond” Joe discusses the formative experiences of his life, including his childhood selling hooch in Scranton, his years cruising college campuses picking up co-eds in a Del Rio, the grade-A tang he plowed in the summer of '87, and his "sweet ass gig" as Senator of Delaware.

Really, really funny material here and excellent comedic narration. However, kinda like an SNL skit that gets morphed into a movie, the jokes tend to get a little tired. I listened to it in 15 or 20 minute intervals.

Francona: The Red Sox Years

From famed manager Terry Francona, a lively, unvarnished narrative of his tenure with the storied Boston Red Sox... From 2004 to 2011, Terry Francona managed the Boston Red Sox, the most talked-about, scrutinized team in all of sports. In Francona the legendary manager opens up for the first time about his eight years there, as they went from cursed franchise to one of the most successful and profitable in baseball history. He takes listeners inside the rarefied world of a 21st-century clubhouse.

Very well written and narrated. The audio book moves quickly and is gossipy and fun. But in the end, it's basically a love story between Franconer and Theo. The two of them essentially do no wrong, but we fans realize it's a little more complicated than that. They did have a great run together though, and this book is essentially a celebration of that. Obviously, it will be of most interest to Sox fans like myself, but I recommend it to other fans of the game as well.

Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball

No owner has changed the landscape of sports more than New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. From the moment he bought the team in 1973 for $10 million, Steinbrenner's monomaniacal pursuit was to restore the most fabled franchise in baseball history to its former glory. Today the New York Yankees are worth more than $1 billion and are once again world champions.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Other Brits had taken Manhattan - Alistair Cooke then, Anna Wintour now - so why couldn't he? But things didn't go quite according to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from Vanity Fair, banned from the most fashionable bar in the city, and couldn't get a date for love or money.

One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com

Amazon’s business model is deceptively simple: make online shopping so easy and convenient that customers won’t think twice. It can almost be summed up by the button on every page: Buy now with one click. Why has Amazon been so successful? Much of it has to do with Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder, whose business strategy and unique combination of character traits have driven Amazon to the top of the online retail world. Originally a computer nerd rather than a businessman, he had the vision to capitalize on the untapped online marketplace for bookselling....

Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger

Ten years ago, an FBI investigation was about to expose a scandal in the art world that would have been front-page news in New York and London. After a trail of fake paintings of astonishing quality led federal agents to art dealers, experts, and major auction houses, the investigation inexplicably ended, despite an abundance of evidence. The case was closed and the FBI file was marked “exempt from public disclosure”. Now that the statute of limitations on these crimes has expired and the case appears hermetically sealed shut by the FBI, this audiobook, Caveat Emptor, is that artist, Ken Perenyi’s, confession.

The Hoax

Novelist Clifford Irving's "autobiography" of Howard Hughes was the literary hoax of our time. This no-holds-barred confession by the author was first published in Great Britain in 1997, where it became a best seller. But no American publisher would touch it until now. Why? The answer is implicit in this ultimate caper story of daring, treachery, and corruption.

There's no denying the hoax itself is incredibly entertaining, however the book is literally twice as long as it needs to be. Though very well written, the author (Clifford Irving) is so incredibly opportunistic, corrupt, and narcissistic, that he is often hard to bear. Though this whole book is purportedly about "coming clean" about an undeniable crime (Irving literally stole almost $1 million from his publisher) he would really rather blabber on in coma-inducing detail about how glamorous his life is, and what a ladies man he is - or was. Hey Cliff - we all want to know about Hughes and the fraud you perpetrated: not you!

Also, as another reviewer mentioned, the narration is usually strong, but laughably bad - and incredibly annoying - when attempting accents. A supposedly middle-aged Asian-American woman in New York is made to sound like some teenaged valley girl, Hughes himself is made out to be some hillbilly, etc. What was the guy thinking? Just like the book itself, the material is strong - so why resort to slapstick caricature voices?

Despite all the criticism, I still think this fascinating ruse is worth your time - if you have a lot of it!

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